Samsung to Replace Intel as Top Semiconductor Supplier in Q2-2021: IC Insights

[btarunr]

Samsung Electronics is expected to regain the distinction of the top semiconductor supplier for the 2nd quarter of 2021, re-taking the lead from Intel, according to a report by market research firm IC Insights. Samsung's growth rides on the back of a resurgent memory market, as the company supplies both DRAM and NAND flash of various types. This is also helped by the fact that Intel's sales in are expected to remain flat around the same period of time. This would be Samsung's return to the top spot for the first time since 2018, when memory prices crashed, sending down production, in a bid to better allow the channel to digest existing inventory.



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[Chrispy_]

I'm just surprised it took Samsung this long to catch up. It's not as if Intel has been building new 14nm fabs in the last five years, they've simply been stuck in a holding pattern, in denial that 10nm full-scale production is not imminent.

I guess they're now at the point where most laptops and some niche server parts are now being made exclusively on 10nm++ but at the same time, their bulk of theirr volume production is still very much the 14nm process they switched to in 2015, and no iteration of 10nm works at competitive clockspeeds for high-performance parts, nor is there any evidence that 10nm will ever be capable of running at the clockspeeds that mainstream CPUs operate at.

 

[PilleniusMC]

I'm just surprised it took Samsung this long to catch up. It's not as if Intel has been building new 14nm fabs in the last five years, they've simply been stuck in a holding pattern, in denial that 10nm full-scale production is not imminent.

I guess they're now at the point where most laptops and some niche server parts are now being made exclusively on 10nm++ but at the same time, their bulk of theirr volume production is still very much the 14nm process they switched to in 2015, and no iteration of 10nm works at competitive clockspeeds for high-performance parts, nor is there any evidence that 10nm will ever be capable of running at the clockspeeds that mainstream CPUs operate at.

Intel was and still is massive, and have tons of sectors they can fill, including automotive, cellular, networking, and so on. They are massive, because their parts are used in a lot of products, my Gigabyte Motherboard, with an AMD chipset for example still has an Intel ethernet controller and a AX200 WiFi+Bluetooth chipset, as do many other motherboards. So it doesn't surprise me, that Samsung took this long.

 

[Chrispy_]

Yeah, but

Intel was and still is massive, and have tons of sectors they can fill, including automotive, cellular, networking, and so on. They are massive, because their parts are used in a lot of products, my Gigabyte Motherboard, with an AMD chipset for example still has an Intel ethernet controller and a AX200 WiFi+Bluetooth chipset, as do many other motherboards. So it doesn't surprise me, that Samsung took this long.

Samsung make RAM, NAND, processors, and a whole bunch of components that go into almost every product under the sun.

Samsung as a company shift way more product that contains semiconductors than Intel. Washing machines, fridges, cameras, televisions etc.

 

[PilleniusMC]

Yeah, but

Samsung make RAM, NAND, processors, and a whole bunch of components that go into almost every product under the sun.

Samsung as a company shift way more product that contains semiconductors than Intel. Washing machines, fridges, cameras, televisions etc.

Oh, absolutely true, but even in those products you can have Intel, Qualcomm, Realtek, or whatever, chips in them. Also.. Samsung needs to compete in more consumer facing spaces, for example with companies like Panasonic, Philips, Sony, LG, and so on, there's a lot. While Intel often only has one or two actual competitors, so it is much easier to ship higher volumes.

 

[londiste]

Top by what measure? Linked Digitimes piece talks about revenue, usually that means revenue of the entire company.

 

[RandallFlagg]

Samsung passed up Intel in 2018 in semi sales. Intel probably traded blows for a year or two after that and Samsung passed them again, but this isn't the first time ever.

And Samsung Group is massive, Samsung Electronics is just one part of it and many of the companies don't even bear the Samsung name. Wikipedia says it has 80 companies - not including companies that it owns that are not based in Korea. Those include things like shipbuilding, finance, media, schools, pretty much everything.

I looked into it one time and really nobody knows how big it is or how much revenue it takes in as a whole now. Long before the mobile craze got in gear and even before HD TV was prevalent, Samsung Group had reported 270+ Billion in revenue in 2010 just from on-shore operations in Korea. That was 11 years ago.

Today, Samsung Electronics alone has revenue of over 190Billion / year making just that one subsidiary the 19th largest company in the world by revenue, and Samsung Group has 79+ other companies under its wing.

 

[R0H1T]

Intel was and still is massive, and have tons of sectors they can fill, including automotive, cellular, networking, and so on. They are massive, because their parts are used in a lot of products, my Gigabyte Motherboard, with an AMD chipset for example still has an Intel ethernet controller and a AX200 WiFi+Bluetooth chipset, as do many other motherboards. So it doesn't surprise me, that Samsung took this long.

What? Samsung already overtook Intel a year or two back, before the NAND market & DRAM prices crashed.